Trump's candidate for justice stands for questions about Russia

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Department
of Justice, Bill Barr, faces tough questions in the Senate next
week on whether he intends to curb Special Counsel Robert
Mueller's Russia collusion investigation.

After the conservative lawyer criticized Mueller last year,
opposition Democrats fear Barr as attorney general will protect
Trump from the investigation and a possible impeachment effort
arising from it.

Mueller has spent 20 months investigating Russian interference in
the 2016 election, and possible collusion between Trump's campaign
and Russia, in a probe increasingly focused on Trump and his inner
circle.

Mueller has issued indictments for 33 individuals, most of them
Russians, and secured convictions of three former top Trump
aides.

Barr, a longtime Republican ally who served as attorney general
once before from 1991-93, will go before the Senate Judiciary
Committee in confirmation hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Democrats want him to pledge publicly to protect the
investigation.

Barr's approval is likely, given the Republican majority in the
committee and the full Senate.

Senators who spoke to Barr in private meetings say he has indicated
that he will not interfere with Mueller, but that he also supports
Trump using his executive powers to defend himself.

"I think the main thing people want to know is, what's his view of
the Mueller investigation?" said the Judiciary Committee's
Republican Chairman Lindsey Graham, after meeting with Mueller on
Wednesday.

"I can assure you, based on what I heard, that he has a high
opinion of Mr Mueller."

Barr "has no reason for Mr Mueller to stop doing his job, and is
committed to allowing Mr Mueller to finish," he added.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the senior
Democrat on the committee, said Thursday that Barr had told her he
would not disrupt the probe, according to media reports. But
The Washington Times quoted
her as saying: "I don't take to the bank anything unless it is in
the public sector and everyone can hear, and it's on the
record."

Trump nominated Barr in December, a month after sacking Jeff
Sessions, who irked the president by recusing himself from
overseeing the Mueller probe, which Trump labels a "witch
hunt."

Barr has a record of endorsing strong executive powers, which could
play into high-stakes legal battles on everything from immigration
policy, to war powers, to whether the president can be required to
provide testimony or release privileged documents in the Russia
investigation.

He expressed support in May 2017 when Trump fired then-FBI director
James Comey, which has led Mueller to allegations that Trump
obstructed justice.

He has also echoed Trump's own claims that Mueller's team is packed
with investigators allied with the Democratic Party.

Barr himself, though, is a strong Republican supporter. Over the
past two decades he and his wife donated nearly $800,000 to
Republican candidates and groups, according to The Washington
Post.

Last year, he submitted an unsolicited legal criticism of the
Mueller probe to the Justice Department, and reportedly to the
White House.

It argued that Trump's presidential prerogatives are protection
against any obstruction allegation in the Comey firing.

The memo in particular has focused the opposition to Barr's
nomination.

Barr is "fatally conflicted... when it comes to the special
counsel," Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, said,
calling for Trump to withdraw the nomination.

The biggest concern is what Barr will do with the report Mueller is
expected to prepare on his findings.

According to The Washington Post, the president's lawyers are
already planning to use executive privilege to stifle material that
could be damaging to Trump or support an impeachment effort by
Democrats.

Graham said Barr indicated he would be "erring on the side of
transparency."